California First State to Say No More Grand Juries on Police Killings: Process Must Be Held Openly, Not Secretively

The great state of California will cease the use of grand juries for deciding whether or not to indict officers involved in the shooting of civilians. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill Tuesday that ends the practice of secret deliberations on such matters.

The law put into place was SB 227, and it is the first state law to ban the use of grand juries in cases of officer indictment. It will go into effect next year.

“One doesn’t have to be a lawyer to understand why SB 227 makes sense,” Mitchell said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The use of the criminal grand jury process, and the refusal to indict as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our justice system.”